It is with this business model that I have to think about leadership, the organization, and the technology that business units buy. Enterprise IT leaders need to approach infrastructure and innovation, as the role of IT continues to evolve, to maintain a competitive advantage. There are two modes of engagements in modern information technology.

Mode one is about creating and maintaining a safe and stable environment within the organization.
It's deliberate, consensus-driven, and often involves technology that is core to the business. IT leaders need to assess the total cost at the pace of customization and integration to determine which type is best for their organization. Measuring support costs and operational cadence to determine which items are best suited to make the move is also an important aspect of preparing for implementation. This mode is the traditional brick and mortar that the enterprise is governed and influenced by.

Mode two is what the enterprise requires now from technology. This mode is non-sequential, fast moving imaginative and innovative. Information Technology needs an administrative approach to drive the two modes in parallel. We need to evaluate our services and service providers for our digital business. Not all service providers or technology will succeed as both mode one and mode two providers. Even new technologies such as smart machines or the internet of things needs to be viewed as bi-modal. These two modes should not be mutually exclusive, but rather need to be linked organizational strategies.

Digital Business will change our business processes and our technology provider landscape. Therefore we need to be prepared for more rapid technology cycles and be aware that; Software becomes the pivotal point of digital business. Ultimately this is the goal to drive mode 2 innovations with mode 1 governance.

Sussex County mode one moves as fast as a rabbit. Our technology that is virtualized and applications that are containerized has created a foundation for our digital business. It's always a challenge balancing resources and investment dollars to walk the line between keeping the core legacy systems up and running while still integrating new technologies to keep the business agile and competitive.

Mode two moves as fast as a turtle, such as our business processes are not digital business friendly. This is not a statement of skill. This is not a statement of productivity. This is a statement of technology, and the type of problems that need to be solved and why they need to solved. We need to develop digital business processes into our hands that have value, things that make a difference in our business.
We need to standardize on an application container and develop our digital business. Then we can build more engaging applications and experiences.

Sussex County’s organization needs to develop in 3 levels.The first is digitalizing business processes.The second is pursuing digital business models.The third is competing for business moments. The amount of investment that the organization puts into the mix of business processes, business models, and business moments is for the leadership to decide.

That’s the digital story that Sussex County must write. What if every asset was digitally connected to our network? Every building has hundreds of sensors, every process was digitalized. Every person and machine has an activity stream that you can subscribe too. We cannot get any more efficiency on our old legacy business process. We can no longer rely on old practices, safe relationships, legacy technologies and known vendors. We have exhausted the efficiencies of our existing legacy business processes. We have to explore adapt and adopt new digital realities. We need to be digital leaders in order to define our future.